Yesterday, the Department for Transport announced a £15 million fund for cycling road infrastructure development and improvements outside London. This follows the £15 million for London announced in March.

Norman Baker, transport minister for sustainable travel, will work with the Cycle Stakeholder Forum, which British Cycling is a member of, to determine how the funds should be allocated. The process will be informed by the data collected by The Times’ cycling map of bad junctions, which 10,000 people have contributed to.

Martin Gibbs, Policy and Legal Affairs Director, who represents British Cycling at the Forum welcomed the announcement. “Getting new funding for cycling in the current economic climate is a job well done by Transport Minister Norman Baker. £15m won’t go far and the Minister is right to be looking for match funding from the areas who receive the funds.

"This fund is a good step in the right direction to improve roads for cycling in this country. What would make a much bigger difference, and would cost very little, is a policy commitment from the Department for Transport to make sure that any newly built junctions are designed with cycle safety as a priority. If we make this fundamental policy change we’d make real progress to building an environment which encourages people to cycle.

"The challenge for the Department for Transport is finding an effective way of demonstrating leadership on cycling issues so that cycling is put at the heart of transport policy, both at national and local level. The Minister has agreed that he will look into how this can best be done and we’ll support him in this."

Improving road infrastructure for cycling is a key element in British Cycling’s Road Safety Manifesto.